website/content/museum/compupro-system-816.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Compupro System 816	Computers	Professional Computer	U.S.A.	1983	8085	name company company_name specs tabs photos adverts hardware comments oc_id source System 816 /companies/compupro Compupro label value NAME System 816 label value MANUFACTURER Compupro label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR March 1983 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE None label value KEYBOARD Serial video terminal label value CPU 8085, Z80, 8088, 8086, 80286, NS 16032, Motorola 68000 label value SPEED Depending of the CPU label value RAM From 16 KB to 1 MB label value ROM Depending of the board label value TEXT MODES 80 chars. x 25 lines label value GRAPHIC MODES None label value COLORS Monochrome label value I/O PORTS 6, 12 or 20-slot motherboards label value BUILT IN MEDIA External 8'' F.D. drives label value OS CP/M-80, CP/M-86, MP/M, MS-DOS, Concurrent Dos label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in power supply unit label value PERIPHERALS S-100 boards label value PRICE From $5500 up to almost $20,000 photos adverts hardware title subtitle text image INSIDE #1 This 816 version was composed of:\ • CompuPro RAM22 256K static RAM card\ • CompuPro CPU-Z card\ • CompuPro System Support 1 card (Math coprocessor, RTC, timers, interrupt controller, serial port)\ • CompuPro Disk1 DMA Floppy Disk Controller card\ • CompuPro Disk3 DMA Hard Disk Controller card\ • CompuPro Interfacer 4 card with 3 serial ports, Centronics printer port and general-purpose parallel port. null title subtitle text image INSIDE #2 Seen from above null title subtitle text image FD/HD UNIT null title subtitle text image INSIDE FD/HD UNIT This unit holds two Misubishi 8" DSDD floppy disk drives and a Quantum 5.25" 36 MB ATA hard disk drive. null title subtitle text image 816/C VERSION The 816/C version was a multi-user system featuring:\ - Dual CPU (8085 + 8088) motherboard\ - 384 KB of RAM, expandable to 1 MB\ - 2 x 1.2 MB 8" F.D. drives\ - 9 serial ports\ - 3 to 16 users expansion As the magazine 'computer Age' said, this system was almost twice as quick as an IBM-PC. null title subtitle text image U.S. AD. (1983) null title subtitle text image U.S. AD. (JUN. 83) Advert said: We've wired CompuPro savvy into three of the industry most potent new processor chips. The result: more performance, more quality, more reliability, and higher speed for greater throughput than ever before.\ CPU 286 and CPU 16032 can upgrade present systems to state-of-the-art operation, or serve as powerful fundations for new systems. CPU 68K, aside from being a superd CPU board, is also the core of our system 816/68K.\ As always, CompuPro kept an eye on the future in designing these CPUs. With a CompuPro, you don't shudder a fast-changing technology, you welcome it. We give you brains and brawn in one box, and that's beautiful. null title subtitle text image Z80 CPU CARD This card could be used alone or as a slave card to run 8-bit tasks in a 16-bit system. null title subtitle text image INTEL 80186 CPU CARD With this board one could have 2 seperate 16-bit CP/M sessions running, each with their own 64K or 256K of RAM.\ This card is fitted with 512 KB of RAM null title subtitle text image INTEL 80286 CPU CARD null title subtitle text image 16032 CPU CARD 16-bit National Semiconductor's 16032 processor board. The second yellow window chip is the floating point arithmetic unit. Provision is made on the card for memory management unit and additional 32 KB of ROM null title subtitle text image ACTIVE TERMINATOR CARD null author date text Joel Jackson (United States) Sunday 3rd July 2022 I have a complete CompuPro 8/16 system that I would like to sell. I do not know if this is the proper forum for this. This belonged to my father and I am in the process of settling his estate. I have posted pictures of the system components. If anyone has any interest or advice on how to proceed, please feel free to contact me. author date text Taraku (USA) Sunday 24th April 2022 I''m soon going to be working on the system, and will be doing upgrades to it as well. If everything goes well, I hope to start making videos online. I want to see if i can make a old computer do new tricks. as well as teach people 74 series logic. I hope to reach out to someone that may be willing to donate parts for this. I want to make a all original and one that is fully upgraded. I want to start with this system first because, not many people know what this pc is. author date text Michael Louie (United States) Sunday 3rd September 2017 William (Bill) Vaughn (Redmond, WA USA) If you are interested in getting rid of your Compupro Components, I would be interested in having them. I don''t know if this is allowed on this Forum, but I''ll post my email address for you to contact me. gohim@att.net author date text Michael Louie (United States) Sunday 3rd September 2017 The 8085/8088 Dual Processor Board was also available in a 6Mhz/10Mhz Version, which is many times slower/slower in throughput than the 6Mhz 80286 3-cycle Processor Board that Compupro produced. The fastest 16-bit processor offered by Compupro was the 2-cycle 12Mhz 80286. Compupro went as far as putting the 80386 Processor onto the S-100 bus before the Company folded. The most advanced Operating System offered by Compupro was Digital Research''s Concurrent DOS, which could be configured for multi-processor, multitasking, multiuser operation with MSDOS compatibility. author date text C H Jervey (South Carolina, USA) Wednesday 30th August 2017 Minor correction. The dual processor card, "CompuPro 816", was a 6 Mhz 8085, 8 Mhz 8088 pair (only one processor active at a time). Typically used with either CP/M-86 (16 -bit CP/M, 8085 not used) or CompuPro''s "CP/M 8/16", a modified version of CP/M-86 that would automatically create an 8 bit CP/M instance and transfer control to the 8085 whenever the user launched an 8 bit program, and return control to the 8088 when the program ended. author date text William (Bill) Vaughn (Redmond, WA USA) Sunday 17th August 2014 I have a CompuPro 8/16 used in the Digital Research Dallas sales office for about two years before being put in storage (in the mid 80''s). Is there interest in this system? It seems complete (with documentation). It includes a S100 card cage module (with power supply) and a dual-drive 8" floppy drive module. I also have unpacked about 500 lbs of documentation, manuals and CP/M boxed (and loose) software. 651 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230603023358/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=651 2023-06-03

The Compupro 8/16 system was one of the last, big, expensive CP/M system that appeared at the end of the S-100 Bus and 8-bit professional systems era.

It was actually a typical S-100 box where the user could insert almost any S-100 card build by the manufacturer or anybody else.

As Compupro manufactured a large range of S-100 card, the system could be fitted with either 8-bit and/or 16-bit processor cards. One of the best-selling card was a dual processor 8088 + 8085 that allowed running both 8 bit CP/M and 16 bit MP/M software, at a speed of 2 or 5 Mhz, in a multi-user, multi-tasking environment.

Several advanced CPU cards were available later: Z80 at 8 Mhz, Intel 80286 and National Semiconductor 16032.

Due to the large range of available CPU cards, practically all operating systems and programming languages of the time could be used.

It appears that Compupro still exists and offers a limited support, spare parts and manual hard copies.